Yemisi Izuora/Ijeoma Agudosi/Hyacinth Chinweuba
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), Mr. Robert Dickerman says that the country’s tall ambition to generate 20,000 mega watts of electricity will gulp significant amount of money that requires discipline and tight fiscal policy to realise.
As an energy expert Dickerman said for the country to realise that ambition, it would spend about $40 billion or N9trillion.
Speaking today at the opening of the West Africa Power Industry Convention (WAPIC) in Lagos , Dickerman said from reliable reports, Nigeria has the lowest power generation per capita in the world.
“There is no expansion capacity, limited gas supply, poor transmission and distribution infrastructure.
The NIPP generation auction is falling apart over fuel supply, poor planning and constraints and holding a capacity of about 5,000 mega watts” he said.
Dickerman pointed out that the funds required to meet the generation target is about three times the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) ever raised in one year by Nigeria.
“It is a challenging amount to raise but Nigeria now represents the Largest potential energy growth market in the world” he said.
He however proffered likely solutions and steps the government should take to achieve its power generation dream.
These he said requires short, medium and long term strategy.
Under the short term plan, Dickerman said government should fix fuel supply, provide infrastructure to the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) plants, and address NESI liquidity problems.
He further suggested that government should plan and implement a 20,000 MW integrated energy system under the proposed suggestion in the medium term, while in the long term it should manage supply growth to keep ahead of demand growth with 15-20 percent reserve margins.
Dickerman also noted that in the generation sector, government should recondition existing 7,000 MW and the 5,000 NIPP plants as well as construct additional 10,000 MW of generation capacity.
Under Transmission, there should be refurbishment and construction of additional 13,000-15,000 MW of evacuation capacity.
In the Distribution sector, he suggested the refurbishment and construction of additional 10,000 MW of evacuation capacity.
Diskerman said all of these are achievable with regulatory consistency, responsible customer behaviour, enabling environment, sound monetary policy and Foreign Exchange and Repatriation rules.